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Phonetic

Syntax:

PHONETIC(reference)
  • reference: A cell reference or range of cells containing text strings with furigana (phonetic) information.

Description:

The PHONETIC function in Excel extracts the furigana (phonetic guide) characters from a text string in a cell. Furigana are small kana characters (hiragana or katakana) placed above or beside kanji characters in Japanese text to indicate their pronunciation. When Japanese text is entered via an input method editor (IME) in Excel, the phonetic reading used during input is stored as metadata alongside the displayed text.

For example, if a cell contains the kanji 東京 (Tokyo) and it was entered using an IME, PHONETIC will return the phonetic reading such as トウキョウ (in katakana) or とうきょう (in hiragana), depending on the furigana settings.

If the referenced cell contains only non-Japanese text or text without furigana data, the function returns the original text unchanged.

Examples:

  1. =PHONETIC(A1)
    • If A1 contains 東京 entered via an IME, returns トウキョウ (the katakana phonetic reading stored with the text).
  2. =PHONETIC(A1:A3)
    • Concatenates the furigana readings from all cells in the range A1 through A3 into a single string.
  3. =PHONETIC(B2)
    • If B2 contains 田中 (Tanaka), returns タナカ (the phonetic reading associated with the kanji).
  4. =PHONETIC(C1)
    • If C1 contains Hello (no furigana data), returns "Hello" (the original text is returned unchanged).

Notes:

  • The PHONETIC function is specifically designed for Japanese text processing and relies on furigana metadata stored by Excel when text is entered using a Japanese Input Method Editor (IME).
  • If the cell does not contain furigana information (e.g., text was pasted or typed without an IME), the function returns the original cell text as-is.
  • When a range of cells is specified, PHONETIC concatenates the phonetic readings of all cells in the range into a single text string.
  • The type of phonetic characters returned (hiragana or katakana) depends on the furigana settings configured for the cell. By default, Excel typically uses katakana.
  • This function is most useful in Japanese-language spreadsheets for tasks such as sorting names by pronunciation, creating reading aids, or extracting pronunciation data for further processing.
  • The PHONETIC function has no direct inverse function. To set or modify furigana, use the Excel UI (Home > Phonetic Guide) rather than a formula.
  • In non-Japanese locales or when working with text that does not have furigana metadata, this function simply returns the original text and has no visible effect.